


To Be Of Use

by dizzydaffodils



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: CW: self harm in the typical mollymauk fashion, M/M, Slow Burn, canon divergence- mollymauk's amnesia? nah dawg, i wrote most of this BEFORE that, original character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 14:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14403951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzydaffodils/pseuds/dizzydaffodils
Summary: In which the group meets a sickly stranger who seems to know more about Mollymauk than they do.Frumpkin quickly darted to the side and pressed against the cold wall. Inside the room Caleb could hear Molly's footfalls as he moved to leave her there. “Mollymauk,” came her raspy whisper, causing him to stop in his tracks. “Do not leave your flock, lest you too become a wolf.”A sigh escaped Molly. “I'm trying to be of use to them, you needn't worry.” A long pause passed before he said softy, barely audible, “I'm sorry you were left to madness.”





	To Be Of Use

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this well before episode 13 and was going to scrap it entirely but I had already written most of it and was really into the idea of Mollymauk being all mysterious and dishonest to hide the fact that he's a blood hunter because they're feared and reviled. I also for some reason convinced myself that Molly was a profane soul and not a ghost slayer, so that also fueled my fire because profane soul is the super goth spooky bad boy order and I expected Taliesin to pick that. 
> 
> My DM and I play a lot of bloodborne and I remember Matt doing a HPG episode about it so this is just how I assume the blood hunter class works aesthetically. I took a lot of liberties and they were all ripped from Lady Maria's cold dead hands.

It had only been a few days since the group arrived in Odessloe when they heard about a rundown temple on the outskirts. Very few disappearances had been reported involving the strange activity there, but a lot of rumors were going around that caught their attention quickly. Some townsfolk claimed the temple was now home to a witch while many others claimed a haunting. When pressed further, however, all had conflicting stories about the possible source of the disturbance. Some speculated there was cult activity going on, which Caleb had come to find was a crowd favorite when it came to times of stress and uncertainty in the empire.

He found himself as concerned as one could be in his position. The threat level didn't seem terribly high as there were no attacks or disappearances outside of those who entered with intent to take care of whatever was inside, so the idea of going in blind was not ideal. Still, he had to admit figuring out what lurked inside and was responsible for the disappearances of several crowns guard and townsfolk who investigated was more interesting to him that anything else they had found themselves involved in the weeks proceeding their arrival. The promise of reward was also enough incentive to catch the interest of the others and get him fully on board.

They prepared and in the morning made their way through a dense forest, skirting around long crumbled buildings and the bones of an old and forgotten part of the town that had appeared to have once been a farming community. Caleb peered out into the lush greenery around them while Jester chirped on and on about what could possibly lie ahead. A captivated Nott sat perched at her side, nodding along to each possibility.

“I don't think it's a witch,” Jester stated matter-of-factly. “Witches have more flair. To me it sounds like a ghost. Oooh, maybe the ghost is lonely and that's why it killed the crowns guard! Maybe it's just _really_ friendly.”

Caleb could almost hear Beau roll her eyes as she responded, “Great, so what if it wants to be friends with us?”

Jester ignored this in favor of wondering aloud about the implications of them taking care of something as simple and untraceable as a specter. “And if is a ghost, how do we bring back proof that we killed it?” she added with a pout. “I don't want to kick some ghost out of its home and not get paid for it.”

“We could just not even go and lie, since they would then have no proof that we _didn't_ kill it,” Mollymauk encouraged, his signature smirk plastered on his face. Caleb's eyes darted back to the path they were on as the man beside him shifted a little to glance his way. He could feel Molly's eyes rest on him for what felt like far too long and it caused him to fidget with a frayed edge of his coat. Caleb had been making it a point to keep a distance between him and the purple tiefling for a while.

His role in the background of the group had granted him a little more insight on the motives of his companions, but his initial and extreme distrust for Molly never waned. It didn't help that Caleb was well aware of his attempts to smooth over that. Everything that came out of Molly was dishonest and tailored to make whatever audience he had fall into his favor. No one would ever accuse Caleb of being a social person, but that didn't mean he didn't understand the implications of such things. He had no way of determining yet just how much of a threat Molly might pose to him and Nott. Maybe he posed none at all and Caleb was simply overthinking the situation (it wouldn't be the first time), but as it stood that he couldn't rule out the possibility to almost an entirety, he would keep a safe distance and a watchful eye.

The conversation continued on for a while, Fjord's gentle voice poking in every so often to inject some semblance of sensibility into the conversation, usually in an effort to soothe Jester's nerves when she would inevitably work herself up with her own theories which seemed to escalate at an alarming rate. Eventually Nott turned to Caleb to ask if he had any possible theories.

“There isn't very much to go on, so it's hard to narrow down a list,” he admitted. “It could be entirely possible that these people just fled the city of their own volition and we're wasting our time.”

This answer did not sit well with Jester who loudly groaned in response and threw her head back exasperatedly. “Ugh, Cal- _eb_! You are such a party pooper!”

Their voices trickled abruptly once the temple finally came into view. He wasn't sure about the others, but Caleb could sense it was there before he could actually see it. He strained his ears for any sound and was dismayed to find there was none. The forest was completely silent, even of the natural sounds of life that one would expect to hear, especially in such a dense wood. He looked around and upwards into the tree branches, searching. His eyes darted around quickly for any sign of life inhabiting them, only to find none. The gentle _swish_ of fabric beside him caught his attention immediately and he glanced over in time to see Molly shift again and a frown harden his face.

“I don't like the feel of this place,” Nott piped up, her strained voice even shriller than normal as she shifted into Jester's side nervously.

Fjord nodded. “The air is too still.”

A few beats passed, impossibly long it seemed, before Mollymauk spoke up. “Whatever is inside... it's not worth the gold.” His voice was cold, lacking any of the jovial and melodic hint it usually carried and the realization sent a chill up Caleb's spine. Mollymauk, for once, was not lying, He was not posturing. He spoke with such certainty and honesty that it was frightening.

“Fuck that,” Beau barked. “We just trekked three hours through the woods to get here. We can negotiate more gold when we get back.”

Caleb openly stared at the Tiefling beside him. Molly visibly tensed and pressed himself backwards against the far end of the cart before throwing a desperate look towards him as if he were silently pleading for some backup from the wizard. There was a part of him, the rational part he supposed, that knew Molly was probably right about this being a bad idea and that he was playing into Caleb's pension for staying alive and as unharmed as he possibly could.

That rational part of Caleb was sizing him up, trying to read what lied beneath the uncharacteristically open fear on Molly's face. He couldn't even imagine what could have Molly so shaken up _before_ encountering a potentially dangerous situation. The curious and almost bitter part of him, however, wanted to know what this dishonest fool knew that he didn't. Seeing what could put on edge someone so good at making others feel ill at ease was worth more than potentially being underpaid for a task.

“I agree,” he said, causing Molly to deflate into himself a little. “We shouldn't waste the trip. Besides, it's like you said. We could simply lie if we don't take care of it since they already have ghosts as a likely suspect.”

Caleb pretended not to notice the way Mollymauk's already grim expression fell into one he could only associate with mourning.

In that moment, Caleb almost expected Molly to leave them but to his surprise he followed them inside and stayed pressed into Caleb's side for guidance as they made their way through the darkened entrance. The temple was completely silent aside from the sounds of their breathing and light footfalls as they ventured deeper and deeper inside.

“Nothing lies here but dust and decay,” Molly whispered to him as if this new tactic would lead Caleb to forget the look of knowing fear on his face before. “We are wasting our time.”

For all it seemed at face value, Mollymauk was correct. The temple was long forgotten and starting to crumble after uncounted decades of neglect. The only evidence to the contrary being foot prints in the thick coating of dust and grime that caked the floor, presumably from the missing crowns guard who had come to investigate the strange activity days prior to them.

“These footprints don't go anywhere,” Beau declared as she paced about in an attempt to follow them with her vision enhancing goggles on, stopping every so often to spin around as if she might stumble onto a fresh track. “They just go in circles.”

Nott crouched low to the ground and peered through the darkness, running her tiny fingers over cracks in the floor as she did so. It didn't take the sly goblin long before she managed to follow them to their end. “Here,” she called out to them. “They end at this alter.”

Caleb summoned his dancing orbs above himself, sending them outward a little bit to illuminate the alter and the space around it. “The dust behind is disturbed,” he pointed out to them. “This slab must move somehow.”

Immediately, Jester began pushing into it to no avail. After a few exaggerated huffs she gave up. “Well, we know those crowns guard probably weren't strong enough to push it open.”

Caleb nodded and began inspecting the dust covered top of the alter and all of the various religious items scattered about it. None of it seemed to have been touched in ages, so he quickly turned his attention back to the floor. Perhaps there was a floor tile that triggered the device. “There has to be a button or something around here,” he mumbled.

Soon after that, Nott discovered a seemingly out of place sconce nearby that opened up the passageway beneath it and they descended downward, carefully following one another single-file down a crumbling stone stairway. Caleb strained to hear any sound aside from the ones they were making, but couldn't over the sound of Molly's jewelry tinkling in front of him as it swayed from his horns.

Nott scouted ahead for traps and came back quicker than usual, looking relieved. “They've been set off,” she informed them. “There's three dead crowns guard ahead. I didn't see any signs of anything else.”

Mollymauk scoffed. “You see? There's nothing but superstition here! These incompetent fools got themselves caught in old booby-traps.”

It was a rare thing, especially when the situation involved Mollymauk, for Caleb to not be the uncomfortable one and something about that pleased him, but he pushed the notion from his mind before he could dwell on it for too long.“What are the traps hiding?” he mused instead as he walked passed him. “There might be something very valuable. That's usually the purpose of trapping such a place.”

The tiefling offered no further argument and they continued on, a couple hour passing by with nothing but silence and more traps awaiting them. Molly's frustrations became more obvious to the rest of the group as they cleared through multiple empty chambers in the labyrinthine underground tunnels.

“You can go back,” Beau suggested as she gracelessly stepped over a more obviously trapped crooked tile. For once, Molly didn't have a smart retort for her and instead pursed his lips as he followed suit.

Eventually they found themselves in a chamber much larger than the previous ones they had encountered. This one covered in ornate fixtures and full of piles of what appeared to be loot and supplies. “A squatter?” Fjord suggested as he motioned passed several large and unorganized stacks of books that Caleb was itching to get near and towards what seemed to be a makeshift bed in the far corner.

Caleb turned his attention around the room, knowing he could investigate the books further once they were sure they were safe. Nott however seemed more keen on scratching her itch and he watched as she made a beeline towards an old trunk that was pushed against a wall. She had hardly placed a tiny hand on it before the sound of an arrow whizzed passed Caleb's head and then shattered against the wall above the trunk.

“If you value your life, goblin, you will leave my things be,” a hoarse voice cracked from the darkness above them.

Molly was the first to move, rushing towards the voice as he held out an arm to his side in an attempt to ward the rest of them back. This action seemed only to amuse whoever lied above them as she rasped out a strained laugh. “How dare you enter this holy place?” she asked, her voice growing louder. “Do you bring your profanity to mock me?”

Nott instinctively moved to pull out her crossbow, earning a swift motion from Molly as he gestured again to stand down. Caleb strained his eyes to see any movement from where Molly and the others were staring, but he could not pick up anything and he dared not move his orbs higher. He could hear her, however. Her breathing sounded forced and dry and every sound that came from her mouth made Caleb's own throat burn in what he could only describe as a sympathy pain.

She laughed again and before Caleb knew it, a hooded figure landed gracefully on her feet before them, now visible in the soft light of an orb that was hovering above Molly. “Put down your weapons,” she called out in a softer but still harsh and stern tone. Her eyes stayed locked on Mollymauk as her face contorted in disgust. “I am no threat to any of you.”

Molly's arm fell to the side and he stepped forward. The rest of The Mighty Nein watched in silence as he reached out for her, an oddly comforting gesture given how tense and stiff his movements were. The woman' bared her blackened teeth and took a step back from him, causing him to pause.  
  
“What the fuck is going on?” Beau whispered loudly, catching the woman's attention from Molly at last.

In a surprisingly fluid motion, she sidestepped Mollymauk and seemingly floated across the floor towards Beau. As she did so, Caleb managed to make out her features more under her cloak as it blew behind her a little. She was impressively broad for how strained and weak her voice sounded, her leather armor rough and worn down from what he could only assume were many hard fought battles. An emerald hood was pulled over her head but Caleb could see the messy blonde hair that cascaded down her shoulders and chest in loose unkempt braids. The bottom of her face was pale, looking almost gray and her lips were dry and cracked. It would appear to him that she had been here for months and was the source of the rumors.

Beau took a step back and pulled out her bo, holding it before herself defensively as the woman seemingly sized her up. “Do you know me?” she asked her, her head cocked to the side.

Beau shook her head no. “How would I know you?” she asked, obviously agitated by the question. He didn't think it was completely unreasonable of this stranger, given the fact that they seemingly just broke into her home.

The woman looked towards Jester expectantly, then towards Fjord, then Nott, and finally Caleb. They all stared on quietly, all clearly unsure of the situation. She turned back towards Mollymauk. “But you. You know me,” she said quietly in a strained tone, her voice breaking and wavering on she further accused him. “And what's more, you've come to taunt me.”

Molly's expression was one of complete grief as he stared silently at her.

Fjord, seemingly having enough and more gut than the rest of them, stepped forward. “Molly, have you met this woman before?” he asked firmly.

Before Molly could reply, the woman turned back towards Fjord. Her movements were jerky and strained now, causing her hood to fall back and reveal the rest of her face. She was a human, and appeared to be before her middle age though much worse for wear than many people more than double that. She looked terrified as her wild eyes darted from each of them, towards any hint of movement or sound in the otherwise silent room. Her nose was crooked, presumably the aftermath of being broken multiple times in her life and her eyes were set back into her head, making the exhaustion on her apparent. Her gaze locked with Caleb's for a moment and he quickly looked away, glancing downwards. She chuckled in response.

“I've not. I have no earthly idea what she's talking about,” Molly replied quietly and she reacted to the sound of his voice, swaying a little as if listening to a familiar song. “but I assure you, dear, I've no intention of causing you any further torment.”

“Ahhhhh,” she moaned out, tapping her temple with a long gnarled finger. “A secret, a secret. Clever devil.”

“Molly, what the fuck?” Fjord asked.

The woman spun in place, her arms outstretched as she danced, seemingly with delight. “What fun! What fun!” She stopped abruptly. “Your friend speaks the truth. Had we crossed paths before, one of us would not be here to tell tale.”

“She's delirious from dehydration,” Molly said as he unfastened the water skin at his hip. “I've seen it happen plenty of times in the circus.” The woman cackled and spun towards him. He caught her awkwardly and pressed the water skin into her hand pale and bashed up hands.

It took some time, but eventually the woman seemed to calm down. Her eyes darted to Molly nervously every so often as they all gathered around her to offer her more water and bits of food. Eventually Caleb summoned Frumpkin. The cat seemed on edge to be near her at first but didn't resist crawling into her lap and nudged into her hand. They all watched as she stroked Frumpkin's head for a few moments, a dazed look on her face, before startling and looking down surprised to find him there.

“A wizard,” she rasped, her voice still painfully strained but much more even now that she had emptied Molly's water. She looked at Caleb, her eyes more lucid and emptied of the fear that had been there before. “Why are you here?”

Jester, who had remained surprisingly quiet throughout this whole ordeal moved closer to her. “We are here to find you, I think,” she said in a comforting voice. “Why are you here?”

She frowned, looking away entirely as she contemplated her response. “It is safe here. A beast is coming.”

Molly fidgeted with his now empty water skin and Fjord sat beside Jester who was kneeling in front of the strange woman. “You're hiding from it here? We could help you fight it.”

She shook her head and a flat smile tugged the corner of her lips upwards just enough to be seen. Just enough to be a gesture. “You are kind but foolish to think you could save me from such a monster.”

At that, Jester fell backwards onto her butt and crossed her legs. “What is your name? I'm Jester, and this is Fjord.” She motioned towards him. “We're very good at helping people, we could probably help you.”Molly's fidgeting hands stilled at this.

The woman's jaw tensed and she swallowed. “I'm...Alma.”

Nott wrapped her arms around Caleb's calf as she dared to get closer with the rest of them. “What's after you, Alma?” she asked.

Alma shook her head and looked toward Nott. “Nothing you need to worry yourself with, little one. The beast has no need of a goblin.” She looked upwards to Caleb. “Or your friend. Once you all leave here, you won't have any reason to worry.”

“Is your throat okay?” Jester asked abruptly. “I can heal you, you know. Your voice sounds like it hurts a lot.”

The question went seemingly ignored and she instead looked back at Molly. “You all can stay here for the night and leave in the morning after you've rested,” she said. “This chamber is safe. The creatures below do not dare come this close to the surface.”

Beau perks up at the mention of creatures. “What kind of creatures are we talkin' here?” she asked, the cogs visibly turning in her head. They needed to bring back something to make this trip worth their time, and it obviously wasn't going to be the head of this woman. Especially not now that they were all sat around her and introducing themselves like she was just another person in another tavern and not some sickly woman hiding under an allegedly haunted temple.

Alma, Caleb noted with annoyance as their small talk went on, was good at dodging questions. Her answers about herself were vague and left much to be desired but eventually they all relaxed some, with the exception of Mollymauk, and set up their bed rolls in a corner of the chamber. They habitually took turns taking watch within the group, Caleb offering to go after after Fjord, Jester, and Nott.

Across the large room from them, Alma lay very still in her makeshift bed of rags and other fabrics. Caleb could almost have forgotten she was there, were it not for the thick tension present in the room and the sound of her breath crackling every so often as she inhaled deeply. After a truly uneventful watch, he gently nudged Mollymauk awake for his shift. Molly's eyes opened immediately as Caleb pressed into his shoulder and he sat up, bowing his head toward him. “Sleep well,” he whispered. Caleb nodded.

Molly and Caleb switched places, Molly leaning against the wall as Caleb settled into bed and turned away from him. He laid perfectly still and focused on evening his breathing out as he strained to listen for anything, still untrusting of Molly and whatever connection he and this woman shared. A little over half an hour passed before Caleb could hear Molly moving to stand up. Silence fell for a moment after but was replaced by the soft sound of Molly's footfalls as he moved away from them.

Hushed voices too far away for Caleb to fully make out words wafted through the air and Caleb held his breath to try and hear better. More silence. Then the sound of two pairs of feet walking back in their direction before exiting the chamber in the same direction their group had entered it.

Caleb lay still for a moment before cursing himself and summoning Frumpkin. He _needed_ to know what was going on. Mollymauk and this woman were hiding something and he had to know. He had to know how much danger they were in, in this temple and in Molly's company. He quickly sent his familiar off after them and focused on seeing through the cat's eyes. Frumpkin managed to go unnoticed as he trailed the silent pair. Eventually they came upon them in a small room he had not yet seen in the maze-like passages and Caleb had the cat hide just outside the door.

“Why are you doing this? This is a coward's end.” Caleb could hear Molly say in a hushed voice.

Alma chuckled. “A fitting close to a coward's life, wouldn't you say?”

“You don't have to suffer like this... you can-you can come with us. We can find a solution in a different town.” Caleb had never heard Molly sound so desperate before and it made his skin feel cold. He couldn't understand why Molly was so invested in this alleged stranger's well being. She had to be somebody to him. Caleb dared to have Frumpkin peer around the corner and into the room.  
  
Alma stood before Mollymauk without her cloak and armor on and Caleb could just barely make out the uniformed raised white marks all over her arms, starkly neat in comparison to Molly's jagged, haphazard ones. Alma reached out and carefully touched Molly's face. “You are just as kind and foolish as your friends. I see why you protect them.” Her hand fell away. “We both know there is no way to undo the change once it begins.”

“So you simply settle on a fate worse than death?” Molly shot back, the softness gone from his voice as he stepped forward and grabbed her upper arms. “You can't be this stupid!”

Alma jerked away from him. “Do not try to lecture me! I can _smell_ your soul's decay, Mollymauk. You are in no position to cast aspersions when your very existence is a blatant affront to everything you swore to be.”

Molly continued to move into her space, his hand flying up to her chin to hold her face so she couldn't look away from him. “That's rich, coming from you,” he spat back. “If I cut you now, would I even get blood from you? My soul's decay has nothing on what poison courses your veins. Or have you forgotten, you sanctimonious wretch.”

Alma went limp at his words and she crumpled before him, falling to the ground in a graceless heap. “Forgive me,” she croaked out as her trembling hands flew up to her face. “Forgive me, I lose myself.”

Caleb watched as the pair fell still and silent for a long moment while Molly stared down at her in pity. Eventually, he too fell to his knees and he reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder. “Can I do anything to ease your suffering?” he asked. She shook her head and let out a low sob.

“Leave me be,” she said, just loud enough for Caleb to hear her. “I do not deserve even a moment's comfort.”

Molly did not argue her, and instead rose to feet. “As you wish.”

Frumpkin quickly darted to the side and pressed against the cold wall. Inside the room Caleb could hear Molly's footfalls as he moved to leave her there. “Mollymauk,” Alma whispered, causing him to stop in his tracks. “Do not leave your flock, lest you too become a wolf.”

A sigh escaped Molly. “I'm trying to be of use to them, you needn't worry.” A long pause passed before he said softy, barely above a whisper, “I'm sorry you were left to madness.”

“Death would be a blessing in comparison to the loneliness, but it is another grace I do not deserve,” her voice replied. “I earned this pain. And you yours.”

Frumpkin peeked around the corner again to see Molly facing back towards her once more as they spoke. “I make no excuses for what I am, dear. For every impure act we've committed, we have more than made up for it with good. Do not let the paranoid ramblings of long dead scholars convince you otherwise. The price you pay is too steep.”

Before Alma could reply to this, the pairs' attention snapped back towards the doorway and back the way they had come. They moved quickly towards it as the soft sounds of shouting bounced off the stone walls and into the room. Suddenly, Caleb could feel his body being shaken and jerked up from his bed. His own eyes refocused to the darkness of the chamber he and the rest of the group were in and his human ears were immediately accosted by the sounds of inhumane screaming.

“Caleb, where is Molly?” Jester's frantic voice cut through as she held him upright. He cast his orbs to light up the chamber and strained to adjust to the light as he took in the scene before him. In the center of the room stood a large, monstrous creature he had only read about in old dusty books in his youth. The bloated abdomen and legs of a giant spider pressed low to the ground while the torso sprouting from it twist around. In its hands it held a sword, but Caleb knew that weapon was probably the least of their worries when it came to such a creature.

“Where's Molly?” Jester repeated as she released him and jumped to her feet.

Caleb too scrambled up, his eyes locked on the drider. “With Alma,” he told her, mind racing with the information he had just gotten. It wasn't enough to make a clear conclusion and so he quickly thought up a lie. “She ran off and he was consoling her. They're coming now.”

He watched as Fjord rushed towards the creature, swinging fiercely into its side between two of it's long legs. The drider seemed unfazed by this attack but it's legs pivoted nonetheless, turning its whole body around toward him before it lunged, grappling on to him and struggling to pull his face towards it dripping mouth. Fjord shoved hard and kicked at the elven torso, managing to get himself dropped before the drider could sink its snapping teeth into him.

Caleb looked around the room frantically, finding that nearby Beau was kneeling down in front of Nott, who peered around at the creature with her crossbow poised.

Beau leaned forward onto her hands, looking like she was ready to launch herself forward into the battle when a loud thunderous _boom_ shook the room and drew their attention to its source. Before the horrid half drow, half spider creature stood Alma, cloaked in the bright colors and glimmering gold of Molly's coat and holding an almost impossibly large war hammer in her hands. The three watched in stunned silence as she swung it round, once, twice, three times, each strike hitting its mark with a sickening thud.

“What the fuck,” Beau breathed out as she adjusted her goggles.

Nott took advantage of Alma's distraction of the drow immediately and began digging through her cloak before pulling out a small bottle of familiar green liquid. She handed the homemade acid off and asked, “Beau, how good is your aim?”

Without a word, Beau grabbed the bottle from her and launched it overhand toward the drider. Despite all of the impressive and improbable things Caleb had seen Beau do in battle, he was still surprised to watch as the glass shattered against the creatures face, causing it to reel back and scream loudly.

“Pretty damn good, I'd say,” Beau said smugly before sprinting from her spot beside them and into the fray.

Mollymauk was upon the creature next, dancing around it as he swung his blades. Caleb tore his eyes away and grabbed Nott, running for the cover of a nearby pillar. “Don't get close enough for it to grab you,” he warned her. “And try to aim for the part that isn't a spider, ja? Its skin is very hard to penetrate.”

Nott nodded and readied her crossbow beside him. He spun around, standing just beside the pillar enough to get a full view of the room as he sent his floating light sources around for a better view of the fight, internally relaxing a bit when he caught sight of Jester seemingly splitting in two and darting off in different directions, causing another pretty decent distraction for the time being.

He clustered his lights together above the drider and focused on the movements of his companions, biding his time until he had as much of an opening as he could get without hurting one of them and held out his hand to send three large blasts of flames toward the creature. To his dismay, his attack didn't even seem to catch its attention as it swung its short sword wildly at Mollymauk who thus far had been doing a decent job of dancing out of its reach as he dodged almost half of its attacks.

Quickly, Caleb fumbled through the pockets of his coat until he found a small straight piece of iron. He internally pleaded with the universe to let this work as he recited the spell. In the center of the battle the drider suddenly came to a halt, its arms falling flat to its side and its sword clattering to the ground. Caleb released a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding.

Keeping the drider restrained took his concentration and so he stayed put, focusing on the spell as the others quickly attempted to finish it. Nott left her place beside Caleb and moved across the room to duck behind a different but closer pillar. In the corner of his eye, Caleb caught a quick dash of purple move backwards and away from the rest of them.

He looked over to see as Alma dodged back, putting space between herself and the battle with her eyes focused ahead of her. Caleb watched as she spun a spiked ring on her middle finger around and reached up to drag it across the back of her neck, grimacing as she did so. When she pulled her hand away, it was coated in thick black blood which she then gracelessly smeared across her weapon which immediately began to crackle with bright blue energy as if a tiny lightning storm encased it. At this, she sprinted forward and struck again, three quick attacks hammering into the drider's drow chest with an almost sickening malice as its body lit up and shuddered at the contact.

Molly stopped dead in his tracks to stare at her, his expression unreadable. She shook her head from side to side and it seemed to put the tiefling at ease. Before he could move to strike, however, two long arms reached down and snatched him. Caleb anxiously watched as the newly released drider sunk its teeth into Molly and he fell limp in its grasp.

A large lollipop materialized over its head and started to spin, gaining momentum and catching its attention. As if he were a rag doll, the drider discarded Molly, tossing him to the side and sending his unconscious body sliding across the floor. Caleb contemplated for a brief moment before he ran for Molly. If anything, this night had only proven to Caleb that Molly was a threat and couldn't be trusted. Still, leaving him to possibly die was not an option. Caleb told himself it was curiosity that propelled his body across the room and into the open with his fallen comrade.

He frantically patted at Molly's pants to try and feel for one of the healing potions he knew the other man had. He cursed as he realized they were probably in his coat and Caleb fished out one of his own. He uncorked it and jostled forward as the sounds erupting behind him became almost unbearably loud and tipped Molly's head back to empty the contents of the bottle into his mouth.

After a moment, Molly sputtered awake and coughed. His hand clutched at Caleb's coat as his eyes squeezed shut even tighter as he struggled to adjust. Caleb swatted at his face. “Come on, come on. We have to move.”

Molly's eyes fluttered opened at the sound of his voice and he looked up at him, his face pulling into a weak imitation of his usual smirk. “Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes,” he pushed out before coughing again and moving to sit up.

Caleb ignored this like he ignored all of the other pleasantries Molly tried to throw his way and instead tugged him, pulling them both up to their feet and shoving him hard towards the cover of another pillar. “Save your taunting for the drider, Mollymauk,” he said once they were hidden from sight.

Molly furrowed his brows, but took Caleb's advice and edged around the large stone pillar and held out a hand towards the creature. Caleb listened as a deep guttural language pulled itself from Molly, sending a chill down his spine as he viciously spat out some cruel threat that Caleb couldn't understand.

Beside him, Caleb began launching more fireballs its way, finding a little more success now as he calculated his attacks. The drider soon started to look more worse for wear than their fellow companions and Caleb watched as a well aimed crossbow bolt to the throat finally fell the creature. “'atta girl,” Molly said and Caleb found himself smiling and nodding in response, happy to share in his pride for Nott.

Jester made quick work of checking on them as Alma, Beau, and Fjord rushed through an open doorway to check that there were no more threats in the immediate area. Caleb stayed nearby as she tended further to the bite on Molly's shoulders and inspected his other wounds. “We need to get out of here,” she said to no one in particular. “This isn't a safe place.”

Molly nodded in agreement as he lifted his arm up to grant her access to a long cut in his side. “We're lucky, that drider seemed unskilled. It must have only just changed.”

“Lucky?” Caleb found himself biting back before he could really think about whether or not he should respond. “When they are young they are more unpredictable and angry! You could have died, you reckless asshole.”

Jester and Molly both stared at him, openly surprised by his little outburst. A genuine grin pulled at Molly's features. “Aw, Caleb. You don't need to worry about me.”

Caleb stammered for a second at this before he stood up. “You owe me a healing potion!” he said instead and wandered away to a still part of the open chamber to process everything he'd seen and heard in the last hour.

One of the only stories Mollymauk had told them that seemed to hold any truth was about something special in _his_ _bloodline_ causing a reaction in his specific stolen magical weapons, but now Caleb had seen this human woman, obviously not sharing any blood with Molly, achieve a similar affect to him with her own blood. He combed back through their conversation, eager to recall any details that may explain this. They seemed to openly revile yet respect one another. Mollymauk had spoke of Alma's blood and her of his soul. Caleb had seen enough of Molly's blood to know it appeared normal, unlike Alma's which appeared to be black sludge.

And then there was the talk of her cruel impending fate. Loneliness was bringing some horrible change upon Alma, one it would seem Mollymauk stood a chance of suffering as well. Something that seemed like a very real and frightening possibility to Molly. Enough so for him to admit he was trying to make himself useful to them so he could stay with the flock.

While he still didn't have all the pieces, he had enough to know for now he would keep this to himself and not cast the tiefling out to such a fate. He needed more to tip the scales to one conclusion or another. As he contemplated further, his eyes found themselves on the stack of books he'd passed by earlier and he glanced around quickly.

No one was paying him any mind. Jester and Nott were preoccupied with Molly and the rest were still gone. Within the stacks his eyes glossed over foreign tomes and various educational volumes. Nothing that struck him too much, aside from a few leather bound personal journals in varying states and degrees of tatteredness. He quickly grabbed them and slid them into the torn inner lining of his coat for later.

And not a moment too soon did he manage to tuck them away before heavy footsteps echoed through the room, signaling the return of Fjord, Beau, and Alma. “It appears to be all clear,” Fjord called out to them in a low voice.

Alma dropped her hammer unceremoniously by the entrance they'd just walked through and the crackling energy vanished immediately. “I apologize,” she started, straining to raise her voice loud enough to reach across the large room. “I haven't experienced a breech this far up in months. I thought we were safe, it was not my intention to put any of you in danger.”

Everyone quickly culminated in the center of the room where Molly was sitting propped up against a pillar. The color was starting to come back to his cheeks and his breathing was slow but even. “Perhaps we should be taking our leave sooner than planned. And wouldn't you know it, we now have a head to bring back as evidence.”

Beau nodded along with what he was saying but was frowning. “Shouldn't we take care of whatever else is further down there?” she asked.

“Yeah! What if more creatures come wandering up and people start getting hurt,” chimed in Jester.

Alma shifted beside them, just enough to catch Caleb's attention. “I don't think there's any uprising happening below, but I was intending on collapsing the tunnels below and sealing off the entrance in the temple so no one else would wander down here and get hurt. Any treasures that were once here have long since been ransacked, there's no need for anyone to come searching down here anymore.”

Before he could stop himself Caleb's eyes flickered over to Molly's face. The tiefling's mouth was pulled into a frown but his expression gave nothing away. A quick glance downward to his hands however, revealed light purple knuckles as he tightly gripped the handles of his scimitars.

“Where will you go?” Jester asked her, breaking the heavy silence that fell as they all wondered the same thing.

Alma didn't really look at any of them as she shrunk back from the question. “That's a problem for another time,” she dismissed, waving her hand a little as she wandered over to the corner she'd been sleeping in and virtually out of sight. Caleb kept his lights away, but could hear the sound of fabric fluttering and glass clinking together as she rummaged around. She soon returned to the sphere of light surrounding them, dressed in her emerald cloak again, and holding Molly's coat rolled up in her hands with three small bottles resting nestled on the fabric. “Unfortunately these are all I have left, but I would like to give them to you all to ensure you make it back in one piece.”

Jester plucked up the healing potions and examined them before quickly sliding them into her bag. “Won't you be needing them?” she asked her.

For the first time since they met her, Caleb watched as Alma's expression softened into a small smile. She shook her head. “I will buy more on my travels,” she told her. Whether or not Jester could also tell she was lying was uncertain, but she didn't press the topic any more.

He wasn't sure how he should feel as they parted ways. Mollymauk surprisingly lead the charge out, giving Alma little acknowledgment as he shrugged his coat back on and made for the exit of the chamber. Caleb waited for the rest of the part to trickle on ahead of him so he could fall into place in his usual spot at the rear, but he faltered for a moment and turned to look back at her.

“Keep them safe,” she rasped out quietly once the others had wandered far enough into the tunnels to not hear.

Caleb forced out a chuckle. “Oh, I think it's the other way around. I'm not very useful when it comes to life or death situations.”

Her eyes narrowed as she looked him over in contemplation before she spoke again. “There is dangerous knowledge in those books you swiped. You don't strike me as a risk taker, but I wouldn't say the same for some of your friends.”

Unsure of how to respond to this confrontation, Caleb simply ducked his head in acknowledgment of her words and turned to catch up with the rest of the group. It didn't take them as long to get out of the underground tunnels beneath the temple as it did for them to carefully find their way down. “It's just after noon,” Caleb informed them as they neared the entrance. “If we don't lollygag we can make it back to the inn before they close the kitchen.”

A heavy silence fell over the group as a few of them crammed into the cart and they made their way back to the town. Mollymauk was the first to climb in, announcing how tired he was as he curled up in the far corner and closed his eyes. Caleb and Nott settled in across from him and the wizard allowed his gaze to linger on the tiefling's handsome face as he let his mind idle for a moment. It was obvious to Caleb, thanks to how tense Molly's jaw remained the entire ride back, that the man was only feigning sleep. Caleb couldn't really blame him for it, all things considered.

Caleb could feel the corner of one of the journals stashed away in his coat poking into his side and he grew anxious as he longed for a moment alone to pour over them. He wanted answers, it was only his nature, especially when it came to magic. All he knew of blood magic, however, didn't seem to fit with the picture before him. This was something new all together.

Beside him, Nott let out a loud, high pitched snore and his eyes flickered back to Molly as he tensed up more at the sound. He curled into himself more and for a moment his frown grew more stern. Briefly, Caleb could see worry lines etch themselves into Mollymauk's otherwise boyish face, contorting his features into an uncharacteristic grimace. Without thinking, he summoned Frumpkin once more and bid the cat to press into Molly's side.

As his red eyes flickered open at the feeling of the warm soft cat pressing into him, Caleb looked away. He stared out into the forest which was seemingly springing to life the further away from the temple they got. He could see birds hopping along tree branches and hear their frantic jumbled songs mixing together in the warm air around them. His eyes unfocused but he kept them held outward as he heard Molly shift again and felt a small tap on the toe of his boot. When no further nudges came, he chalked it up as a small gesture of gratitude and said nothing as the soft rumble of Frumpkin's purrs wafted between them. He couldn't help the light smile that tugged at the corner of his lips as he glanced over to see his cat curled up in Molly's lap as he scratched the content creature with both of his hands, his shoulders slumping down as he relaxed a bit and seemingly focused all of his attention onto the cat.

Caleb wouldn't let his mind linger much on how curious it was that he could distrust someone so much and still feel such a pull to comfort them nonetheless. There had always been something about Mollymauk that compelled Caleb to not flat out push him away. Despite all his brashness and his over the top performances, it was unshakable. There was always the tiniest glimpse of something that kept him just at the edge but never pushing him over. He shifted, feeling the worn out spine of one of the books move with him and settled into a more comfortable position. Something needed to break. He either needed a reason to push Molly away entirely or a reason to justify the desire to pull him in closer. It was impossible for him to say which of those two possibilities was more frightening.

 

The Mighty Nein make it back to the city without incident (if you exclude any and all of Jester's shenanigans) and Caleb gladly slides into the background. They collect their reward for slaying the drider and returning the fallen crown's guard and townsfolk before heading back to their inn. Caleb is halfway through his second helping of stew when Mollymauk rises from the table suddenly, putting an abrupt end to the colorful conversations flying around between the rest of the group.

“I need to take care of some business,” he said, throwing them a devilish grin.

Caleb didn't need to look at Jester to know she was staring up at Molly with big eyes and a pout. “Where are you going? Can we come too?”  
  
Molly chuckled. “ 'fraid not, dear. I need to stretch my legs and blow off some steam.”

“You're coming back, right?”

Molly's expression softened at her question and he moved over to ruffle her short hair. “Of course. I wouldn't just leave you alone with this borin' crowd. I'll be back before you even have time to miss me.” And with that they watched him saunter out into the night.

Caleb wasn't sure what number he would put on the days it would take for him personally to miss Mollymauk, but the next night as he watched Jester playing cards with Nott he knew the number was nonexistent for her. The distracted blue tiefling's head would snap up every time she heard the sound of someone entering the inn, her eyes growing with excitement only to fall downwards as she tried to turn her attention back to the game at hand. Even Nott seemed to be saddened by the lack of their eccentric companion.

Beau, for her part, was being respectful about it. Going as far to comfort Jester with reassurances. “Maybe he went to find Yasha and they'll _both_ be back soon,” she had tried, failing to sound hopeful at all. Still, Caleb could see the effort on her part.

That night as he set his alarm spell and he and Nott got ready for bed, he wondered for the first time if Mollymauk would indeed return. There hadn't appeared to be a hint of deceit in his voice when he promised them he would, but Caleb was well aware of how good at lying the man could be. The unfiltered worry that marked Jester's face stayed with him as he laid down and for reasons he wouldn't allow himself to try to comprehend, he found himself waking every couple of hours.

Eventually, he grew tired of this and carefully climbed out of bed. If he wasn't going to sleep, then he might as well read. He gathered up Alma's journals and carefully crept downstairs. The tavern's bar was still open but the usually lively room was quiet, save for a couple of drunk dwarves teetering on their stools at the bar as they both wheezed and twisted about, grabbing onto each other for support each time one or both of them erupted with laughter.

Caleb ordered himself an ale and quickly stashed himself into the corner, eager to finally take a look now that he wasn't exhausted and surrounded by prying eyes. Alma had warned him of the potential danger should these journals fall into the wrong hands, and Caleb was eager to learn what secrets she knew.

The first journal was post dated three years prior, and Caleb was delighted to find that it was full of very neat and meticulous notes on various sorts of beasts and their habits. It appeared to him that the two oldest journals were much more studious in nature than he'd expected them to be and he flipped through the first one haphazardly, catching glimpses of Alma's passion for learning about and exterminating wicked creatures.

The second Journal was where things started to take a more interesting turn. Blood magic was something Caleb had learned to stay away from at a very young age but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a fascinating topic. It was made all the more fascinating now as he flipped through neatly drawn tables and charts detailing Alma's various experiments as she learned to further manipulate her own blood and temporarily change her body's physical abilities, stretching them out to differing degrees of success. The risk of such things did not seem to be lost on the woman, however, as she noted and weighed the negative side affects and speculated about the longterm damage she may be causing her body.

Caleb suspected he knew the outcome to her tinkerings, a hunch that was only growing more plausible as he skipped ahead to the third journal.

Here, Alma began chronicling more and more of her personal life. Caleb quickly flipped through, not necessarily uninterested but more so out of a sense of obligation to the woman who had willingly let him steal her personal belongings. Nosy as he was, he felt it best not to pry into the more intimate details of her life as she traveled with a group of others with shared interests to her. Familiar names started appearing less and less as he pressed on, skimming through the loss of Alma's companions. Their disappearances seemingly mysteries, until the group was trimmed down to just two.

_Anyanka has been acting very strange. We do not speak of it, but an unceasing dread consumes me now as we press on. I wouldn't dream of accusing her of harming the others, but I believe she may know more than she's letting on. At supper tonight I brought up Raul as I had been missing his songs, and Anyanka's response was cold and uncaring. She seemed pleased that he was no longer with us! I miss our fellow travelers and I am beginning to miss my dear Anyanka though she is always beside me. Is it she or I, who is becoming a stranger?_

Caleb flipped ahead a few pages, scanning until he no longer saw mention of the woman named Anyanka. He traced back to the last entry with her name written.

_As the harsh winter continues, Anyanka's illness takes more and more of her from me. She remains alert, but there is no recognition in her eyes when I sit by her bedside. Her fits have grown more common but her body grows weaker. I simply need to take hold of her and let her tire herself out now when she lashes out. In between the fits, she falls into what I can only describe as waking nightmares. The blood lust has ravaged her mind and I know what is left is the shrieking and writhing corpse of my dearest Anya. She has never spoken of kin, so I will lay her to rest here in Odesslo._

_May I find the strength to forgive myself for not seeing the truth sooner. May her screaming soon come to an end._

He looked up and glanced around the bar, finding that one of the dwarves had fallen asleep and was propped up with him chin on the bar top as his friend tore into some mutton. With no one paying him any mind, he read on.

_I have buried ~~An~~ the beast. It awoke fully yesterday morning after an endless night of screaming. I have heard many tale of the change, but none of them could prepare me for the reality. It is with a heavy heart that I realize now, much too late, that I should have put her to rest before I allowed such a thing. I was weak, and for that weakness she suffered greatly. I've committed the most deplorable crime against her._

_The body I buried was unrecognizable and I will not lay flowers at its grave._

_I cannot say for certain where she left us, but she had been gone long before the others. I know that now and I fear some part of me knew it then. I was not strong enough to save any of us. I have failed._

The entry continued on, Alma's handwriting growing more and more sloppy and repetitive as she carried on and Caleb could not bring himself to read her mourning any further. He closed the third and most tattered journal and flipped through the fourth. His jaw tensed as he took in the incomprehensible scribbles. Every so often a word would jump out on a page, but nothing that seemed to fit together. There were no secrets or information contained in this last journal, he realized as his stomach sunk. This was Alma's own decent into what she referred to as 'blood lust'. Caleb slowly turned each page, looking for _something,_ anything coherent and valuable.

“Interesting read?”

Caleb jumped and reflexively grabbed the journals and pulled them towards himself before he looked up to see an exhausted Mollymauk staring down at him with his eyebrow cocked. “Something you stole, hmm?” he questioned.

“Ja,” Caleb muttered out and cleared his throat. “Some interesting magical studies. Druidic, if I'm not mistaken.”

The expression on Molly's face made it clear that it was a poor lie but he didn't press it as he slid into the seat across the booth from Caleb. “It's late.” His voice was soft and Caleb could see plain as day the bags under Mollymauk's eyes. He looked older as he sat across from the wizard, all of the polish and excitement rubbed away and replaced with a sadness Caleb wasn't used to seeing there.

After a moment he looked away, needing to look anywhere but Molly's face. He let his eyes travel down to his hands that were folded neatly on the table. There, he could spot a handful of black dots smattering the trim of Molly's sleeve and his stomach churned more. “You are back,” he said flatly as Molly quickly shifted and slid his hands into his lap and out of sight.

“I am, and immediately I am greeted by the familiar sight of Caleb alone with his nose in a book. Don't you sleep? Or were you waiting up for me?”

Caleb frowned, but he looked back towards Molly's face now. The tiefling was watching him nervously and Caleb could hear the sound of his tail swishing as it brushed against his pants. He was clearly in some state of distress and the wizard didn't know how to handle it. He swallowed the lump in his throat and sat up a bit in his seat, his back fully erect as he tried to posture himself up. Somewhere in the back of his mind he hoped that seeming certain and calm would help put Mollymauk at ease. “Not necessarily untrue,” he admitted. “Your absence has... struck a cord in the group. I'm happy to see you back.”

Molly cocked his head to the side and snorted. “The word ' _happy_ ' doesn't seem to be a fitting moniker for you, darling.” His eyes shifted towards the books Caleb was trying to obscure with his arms.

Caleb knew Mollymauk was too fast for him to swipe the journals away in time and so he relaxed away from them, bluffing as he did so. “Admittedly, I've never been the best at expressing any sort of emotion. Relief, perhaps, was the more accurate feeling.”

The tiefling's red eyes lingered on the journals for a couple beats longer than Caleb was comfortable but his tactic of leaving them open for grabs to make them less interesting seemed to have worked and instead (and possibly more frighteningly) those haunting eyes locked themselves on Caleb's face. “Worried about me?”

Caleb frowned at him for a moment, mulling over his exact feelings. He couldn't pin point when they started to change but somewhere along the line he had become aware of his desire to get closer to Mollymauk. It was a foolish desire, of that he was certain. Mollymauk was the exact opposite to Caleb in every way, but all of those differences were what he found himself drawn to. Sure, Molly could be a brash, pigheaded asshole with little to no impulse control, but more often than not the sourly wizard found himself admiring Molly's recklessness and his colorful personality and appearance.

The logical reaction to these feelings for Caleb was to find a reason to invalidate them. For all he was concerned, Mollymauk was little more than a pretty bear trap waiting to snap down on him the moment he let his guard down. But even now, armed with so many new reasons to keep his distance and cast the tiefling out, Caleb found himself feeling fiercely protective of him.

“I know you can handle yourself, Mollymauk.” His stomach clenched as the slight hopeful expression fell from Molly's face only to be replaced almost immediately with his showman's smile. Caleb hated that smile. “I was, however, worried you would not return.”

Thankfully this caused Molly's forced grin to soften just enough to be noticed, but Caleb knew he left a door open and Molly wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make him squirm. “Is that your way of telling me you missed me?” he cooed, his smugness melting away some of the tiredness around his eyes.

Caleb's immediate reaction was to recoil and remove himself from the situation and he knew that was the _logical_ reaction. He'd just learned that Mollymauk was tampering with some seriously dangerous blood magics and was risking his own mortality for power. He finally had the missing pieces and the picture they painted was not one that should be easing him into this type of conversation but he found himself softening nonetheless. “It is.”

This clearly wasn't the reaction Molly had been expecting and he stammered for just a moment before pressing his hand to his heart. “You're getting all soft on me now, Caleb. I'm touched.”

The slightly mocking tone didn't go unnoticed and Caleb sighed as he slid out of the booth and quickly gathered his things. “Ja, well,” he mumbled as he carefully cradled the journals in the crook of his left arm and patted himself down with his free hand to make sure everything was in order before he retreated. “I'm just glad Jester can finally stop looking like someone stole her puppy now.” Satisfied that everything was in order, he turned towards the stairway.

“Goodnight, Caleb!” Molly called out behind him in a sing song voice.

Caleb waved a dismissive hand. “Sleep well, Mollymauk,” he replied flatly as he fought to suppress the twisting discomfort in the pit of his stomach.

Once in his room, Caleb stowed away the journals, burying them deep in his pack. He knew he would have to dispose of them soon, for fear of what might happen should someone foolish enough get a hold of the one with Alma's formula's in it. Caleb didn't know much about medicine, but he knew enough to know that the tonics the woman had been creating were enough to severely harm the average person.

As he mulled over his options, he faltered. A realization from earlier finalizing in his mind now that the distraction of the colorful tiefling was gone. Alma was dead. Caleb collapsed heavily onto his bed and sighed. Mollymauk had released her from her torment before she could suffer the fate she'd resigned herself to, why else would he be splattered with her unnatural blood? His heart sunk as he tried to empathize with how Molly must be feeling over this.

Caleb didn't know terribly much about blood hunters, other than they were generally feared. He'd always thought them to be solitary, but that didn't seem to be the case now that he had new information on them. Molly was very much a social butterfly and he was dependent on those social bonds to keep his humanity in tact. As he glanced across the room to the barely visible outline of Nott's sleeping form, Caleb made up his mind indefinitely. He would protect Mollymauk's secret.

Society, he had learned early on, was quick to judge... especially the things they feared due to ignorance. Caleb had always been a very cautious man, but he was always willing to try and understand. Knowledge was a powerful tool when it came to overcoming fears and prejudices and he knew that better than most. Having the potential to be dangerous didn't make one evil. Caleb had always found that notion comforting and he relaxed even further into his bed, kicking his boots off into the middle of the floor.

Understanding one's intentions wasn't his strong suit by any means, but as he made his way down to the tavern for breakfast and found the rest of his party already crowded around their usual table, Caleb was starting to get it. He could feel the familiar gaze burrowing into the side of his head and turned towards it just in time to have a plate of food slid in front of him. “It's a probably ice cold by now,” Mollymauk lamented. “I didn't expect you to sleep in so late.”

The wizard nodded his thanks towards him. “I don't mind,” he assured him as he began to tuck into the meal.

Mollymauk's shoulders slumped a little as he relaxed, shooting Caleb a toothy grin before he turned his attention back to the rest of the group. Caleb worked on his chewy, cold bacon and relaxed to the familiar sound of Beauregard and Molly's playful bickering. One day, he thought, one day he would tell Mollymauk that he didn't have to try to be of use to them to keep himself woven into the group, or even just woven into Caleb's life.

Under the table he felt a soft bump against his knee and he was stirred from his thoughts. He glanced down to see Molly's leg pressed against his and looked up to see the soft, relaxed smile tugging the corner of his lips as he reached over to snag a greasy sausage link off Caleb's plate and he wondered if the tiefling had already figured that much out.

Caleb knocked his knee back against Molly's, just for good meassure.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you didn't hate this and would like to shoot me prompts or just scream into the void about how much you love these fools, my CR (mostly Mollymauk) themed writing tumblr is _mollymocked2death_


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